Planner Plans – 2019

I bought a bunch of notebooks and now I gotta use them.

Leuchtturm 1917 – Bullet Journal

This is my main planner. My don’t leave the house without, make sure all my purses will fit – planner. I still had like 80 pages left in my old one but one of my planner friends read Ryder Carrol’s book, The Bullet Journal Method, and he swears by starting fresh for the new year. Plus I didn’t include 2019 months in my Future Log so I needed to start fresh anyway. This week I’ve started to note which Collections (lists) I need to migrate over to the new book. If none of this makes sense to you, you can check my other Bullet Journal posts (here and here) or if you’re mildly interested, my Bullet Journal Guide is here.

Hobonichi Weeks (Mega) – Personal Care

I’m trying to relax my usage of the term “self-care” because the Internet uses it too much and it’s become associated with bubble baths (said like Hormone Monster). Dec 2017 I absolutely had to have a cute Happy Planner – Mini size cause it had glasses on the cover and it was $4. I used it to track water consumption, shows I binged, when I started/finished books and podcast listenings, lunch/dinner dates, that sort of thing. I mostly carry it with me, for sure in my work bag but it was just something fun because I needed the notebook. And this year I fell into the rabbit hole of Japanese stationery brand, Hobonichi so I’m going to use the Weeks as the Personal Care journal. It’s pre-made and has a bunch of extra pages in the back for…whatever. I thought I could use this as a bullet journal but it’s way too small. The Tomoe River Paper is very smooth and great for fountain pen writing.

Hobonichi (A6 – English) – I dunno

I think I’ll use this for memory keeping? Definitely not taking this notebook with me everywhere. It’s the same nice paper and each day is it’s own page in the notebook. I can’t see the whole week at the time so there’s no way it would really help me get things completed. I could just do a few lines each day (I signed up for journal prompts with Trina O’Gorman ) or throw a picture or write a song lyric. This was going to be my personal planner but I got shopping happy and just kept buying stuff.

Traveler’s Notebook (TN) – Writing Things

A friend gifted me a gift card to Cocoa Paper so I ordered a Traveler’s Notebook. It’s basically a leather book with strings for you to add separate notebooks inside.

Here’s what’s inside now:

• Journal Notebook (thin insert) – cause sometimes you just need to journal
• Writing Notes (thin insert) – notes for short stories or whatever I’m writing.

Scribbles That Matter (B6) – Commonplace Book

This is also in my TN but I just found the name for it a short while ago so it deserves it’s own section. I’ve always written down quotes or notes or highlighted stuff I like in books. Even now I’ll jot a good quote in my BuJo or screenshot something from Twitter/Instagram. The Commonplace is a place for that. The thing is, you don’t put any thoughts behind it. It’s just other people’s words. Focusing on the words, not the commentary.

So right now, I’m taking time twice a weekish to transfer notes into my Commonplace. And occasionally review it before I sit to write anything. Read this post for more Commonplace info.

Archer & Olive Notebook – Book Notes

Right so I just bought this notebook and needed something to do with it. Archer & Olive notebooks are beautiful but they aren’t quite A5 size (the size of my Bullet Journal) and they’re dot grid but they don’t have page numbers. I always track my books in Goodreads but I don’t really write notes on them. It’s just an overall rating at the end. So this is where I’m keeping notes on the books I’m reading. They might also be scribbled in the BuJo and then transferred over. And some of the notes are just like “OMG I can’t believe I’m still not done with this book” (see: Vox).

Do I need all these notebooks? No. I think I would be perfectly fine with just the bullet journal. I could include all the trackers and just flip to the next page to write book notes. I do that most of the time anyway but I also have a notebook buying habit.

The most useless things I buy: fancy paper clips. I do enjoy stickers for decorating the inside of my planner but I always see really cute planner clips and buy them. But they leave dents in the paper and never stay in place because I throw my notebook in my purse.

The best things: actually this rubber stamp I just bought that’s a water tracker. I also highly recommend a ruler that has a cork bottom that lifts it a little of the page. Reduces smudging when you want to draw a nice clean line.

And I can’t even get into pen recommendations cause that’s a purely personal choice and even though I’m enjoying my fountain pens, nothing can beat a decent Pentel RSVP.

Tips: Washi and sticky notes are always a good way to separate out ideas or collections if you don’t want to set up an index in any notebook. When I was Christmas shopping I didn’t want to keep trying to remember my page number so I just stuck a flag on the page I wanted to remember. I’m listening to Brene Brown’s Rising Strong and I have a bunch of notes so I might highlight the page in my book notes by putting washi down the side so I can reference it often. Might do the same if I re-read Eat, Pray, Love.

Also, reduce the amount of perfectionist you follow on social media…in all things. It’s distracting and really not helpful.

Am I really going to use all these notebooks? Maybe? The best laid plans of planners oft go awry. OFT. But I’ve accepted this is who I am as a person. I refuse to buy a new jacket but I can’t pass a notebook that needs a good home.